Intellectual properties are the driving forces in the video game market in terms of sales and success. In an article published on Gamasutra titled “Why Don’t Developers Buy/Sell Intellectual Property Much Like Other Assets?” the author, Jorge Munoz, presents some points regarding why people should be more motivated towards purchasing intellectual properties. Munoz does this by presenting various reasons as to why people should be encouraged into buying and selling their intellectual properties.

The first point is directed specifically towards those interested in taking a game into a new direction. The article presents the example of purchasing the Call of Duty IP, part of the problem with this reasoning is the contrast between what the Call of Duty IP has been over the last decade, a multiplayer focused military shooter and trying to take the game into a new direction. The studios behind some of the Call of Duty games have made drastic changes which resulted in a drop of sales. Although this is not the case with all IP’s it can be said that most consumers are more prone to buying similar iterations of the same IP. Also, most AAA games IP are not within the price range for just one person to buy. Adding to that as an independent developer you want to build your own brand and image to stand out and create your own successful IP.

The second point brought up in the article is, that as a developer you want to move onto other game ideas. And the reasoning behind this argument is “What if you’re stuck in Early Access. Your team has sunk all they can into a game. Maybe it’s time to place the property into someone elses hands?”(Munoz,  2015). Although with slightly different reasoning, Epic Games sold the Gears of War franchise to Microsoft, because the franchise did not fit with the vision of the future of gaming that the studio has (Makuch, 2014). But there are other cases in which the studio holds the IP regardless of whether they are working on it or even planning to, because the studios believes it has potential to become successful.

The third and fourth point are quite similar and focus on how having IP can prove to be valuable assets in terms of monetary value. Ultimately these two points mostly target those who focus on the business aspect or just want to make money. But it is very hard to gauge how you will profit from these IP’s if nothing is being created under them.

The final point in the article is if the company is going bankrupt. In this case a studio will probably be forced into selling their IP’s and it is a very real scenario in the industry when so much time is invested into creating games and sales do not meet the estimations. A few examples of studies who have undergone this process is Crytek, 38 Studios, and even publishers like THQ, all sold IP’s, assets among other things when going bankrupt. Seeing the range of studios that can fall into bankruptcy is slightly unnerving but it is a reality of the video game industry.

To summarize most of these points were directed towards people who could afford buying very expensive IP’s and were not that helpful in terms of being an independent developer. Although, the article did provide a few outlets where some game IP’s were sold. As a developer it would seem more reasonable to make their own games and draw inspirations and improvements from others or even attempt to work where those games are being made.

References

Munoz, Jorge. (2015 May 20th). Why don’t developers buy/sell intellectual property much like other assets?. Gamasutra. Retrieved from http://gamasutra.com/blogs/JorgeMunoz/20150520/243471/Why_dont_developers_buysell_intellectual_property_much_like_other_assets.php

Makuch, Eddie. (2014 March 28th). Why Epic Games sold Gears of War to Microsoft. GameSpot. Retrieved from
http://www.gamespot.com/articles/why-epic-games-sold-gears-of-war-to-microsoft/1100-6418618/